County Fails To Apply For Grant To Start Indigent Program

August 11, 1985|By Ines Davis of The Sentinel Staff

KISSIMMEE — Osceola County doesn't have a primary health care clinic for indigents, and has a manpower shortage in health care. The county, however, has passed up an opportunity for state money to establish a program for poor families.

County health director Dr. George Gant said he didn't apply for a portion of the $19.5 million through the Health Care Access Act because he wasn't on the job when the state asked for applications in September. Gant's predecessor, Dr. David Crane, left in August 1984 to work in Seminole County and Gant took over in January.

The state set aside $10 million last year and $9.5 million this year through the Health Care Access Act adopted in 1984. Its basic goal is to assure that the poor are getting health care, said Pam Hammock, program coordinator with the Health Care Access office in Tallahassee.

The money -- which came from a 1 percent tax on hospital revenues -- was awarded to county public health units to provide or expand their programs for indigents.

Seventeen counties received grants for new or expanded services for indigents. Primary care generally is defined as basic care that includes preventive medicine and dental care. Major surgery or ongoing intensive treatment is not included.

Last year, Osceola County was designated a ''health manpower shortage'' area by a division of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. What it means is that there are not enough physicians -- family practitioners, obstetricians and gynecologists, internists and pediatricians -- to provide adequate primary care for the population.

A lack of physicians to serve the poor was cited in Orange and Seminole counties. These counties, plus Brevard and Osceola, are all in the HRS' District VII.

Twelve percent of Osceola's population are below the poverty level, according to the 1980 census. In 1980, the county had 48,424 people, and 5,723 of those were at the poverty level. The county's population since has swelled to 70,000. There are no recent figures on the number of low-income residents. Health care for indigents in Osceola County is an issue that both Gant and a legal services agency have established as a priority.

Although Gant said earlier this year that he did not believe the county should provide a primary care clinic, he said the demand eventually would force the county or some other agency into setting up a storefront clinic.

The Greater Orlando Area Legal Services Inc. has taken on the battle through the courts; it recently filed suit against the county welfare department charging that it failed to assist an indigent couple with its medical bills.

While Osceola did not apply for state money, the three other counties in the HRS' District VII -- Orange, Seminole and Brevard -- were turned down, Hammock said.

Gant said he probably would have applied for the funds but ''had I known what I know now, I may not have.'' Gant said most of the money went to federally funded clinics, which would have left out Osceola.

However, Hammock said only a small portion of the money went to clinics operated on federal dollars because it wouldn't make sense to subsidize a federal program with state dollars. The money that did go to those clinics will be used to expand services, she said.

The only county in east Central Florida that received money was Volusia, which was awarded $450,000.